I awoke with a start.

I felt like I just had an awful dream. Or rather…

"I died!"

I was pretty sure I"d died 3 or 4 times. I caught my breath while just sitting in bed in a T-shirt and boxers with the morning sun shining in on me.

I checked the digital clock on the same shelf as the TV next to the bed and saw it was 08:03 of 8/3/1990. I liked how the time and date matched. Was this going to be a good day?

But that aside…

"Is this what it was??"

The reason I had "died" had fallen onto the bed.

It was just an ordinary pair of game gla.s.ses. Those things you put on to play an immersion game. They looked like gla.s.ses, but they were sitting next to my pillow. Or more likely, they had fallen there. That meant I had fallen asleep while playing the game.

Falling asleep in the middle of something is so great. Finally doing it after nearly dozing off a few times just feels so fulfilling.

But doing it in the middle of a game - specifically one of those immersion ones - is dangerous.

It"s…y"know.

When you fall asleep after game over-ing - that is, dying - it feels so much more like you really did die.

"It was all cause of this hardware…"

The gla.s.ses said "Genesis-Edge" on them, but they technically weren"t a game system. What were they called? Well, it doesn"t matter. I do know you can use them to watch p.o.r.n using a swappable rom once you"re a grownup. h.e.l.l yeah. 360 degrees, baby! Just two more years and I can check out all that p.o.r.n I"ve been stocking up on online.

Anyway, I had bought these things with hope for the future in my heart. They"re the latest fad and it cost me a week"s pay from the part-time job I started during summer break.

And I do like games.

That said, I didn"t start the part-time job for the gla.s.ses. I wanted a bike, clothes, a bag, and other equipment for taking day trips. I also wanted a sleeping bag because I was thinking of doing some camping too.

Does it sound cool to say I didn"t know what to do with myself with my parents overseas? Really, though, what were my parents even doing? It was some kind of machine-related business, I think. They went on a business trip where it really helps to know English and I was left with nothing to do. My school was local and used a dorm system, which was rare these days. That meant I didn"t live at home. I had moved out when my parents went overseas. It was just too big for me alone.

But I did have plenty of memories there. Um, well, I can"t actually remember any of them now, so…uh, just trust me. Some moving stories had to have happened there.

And now I was living a carefree life.

The school had a huge campus, so the dorms were more like apartments. They were built 15 years ago and they were apparently built before this was part of the campus, but they were made into dorms when the land was bought up by the school.

I would have preferred a "dorm" like this outside the school, but my parents probably didn"t feel safe having their kid outside the managed campus.

Wow, I am being really exposition-y here, aren"t I?

But anyway…

"I have nothing but bad memories about that gaming session."

I looked at the box for the gla.s.ses on the floor and got out of bed. The morning sun shining through the curtain told me this was going to be a hot one. Or maybe it was how sweaty I was waking up. Oh, h.e.l.l. I could just tell this was going to be another day of nothing worth mentioning.

I wanted to do something. Something fun and exciting that didn"t cost much money. Was there anything like that? No? Is this what they mean when they say an ordinary life is worthless!? Is it!? I don"t want to hear anything else bad about a normal life! Day by day, I"m burning through more and more tax money! How about that, you high income taxpayers!? Had enough yet!?

Getting all fired up first thing in the morning was a bad idea.

This was probably why I bought that thing in the first place.

I got down on the floor like I was crawling and opened the gla.s.ses box. When I peeled off the sealing tape and removed the inner box, I found the instruction manual and…that was all.

I was hoping for some exciting ads for upcoming game releases, but there was nothing. No instructions for accessing p.o.r.n with it either.

…Are they even trying to sell this thing!?

Well, there was probably some grownup issue preventing them from doing that. I understood that. We could continue this conversation in two years. But…

"Overpackaging is a problem, but I don"t like it when it"s this simple either…"

The box was entirely black, probably to make it look cool, but it felt a little too plain.

I could see the charger plugged into the power strip on the floor, so I clearly did a pretty good job setting everything up before going to bed. I had lost my game gla.s.ses virginity while carrying hope in my heart for two years down the line.

And then I had died.

That seemed like a bad first impression, but it had also left a h.e.l.l of an impact.

"Yeah, that"s right."

I decided to try it again later. I looked over to the bed and saw the TV on the shelf next to it. There were a few game systems directly below it.

They looked like a jumbled mess with all the cords hooking them up and they were hard to miss as they reflected the morning sun. A big difference from the gla.s.ses next to the pillow.

…I feel like these gla.s.ses suit me better.

Why had I bought them? Oh, right. Jumping the gun on a better p.o.r.n delivery system. I recalled that while I plugged the gla.s.ses into their charger.

I didn"t have any breakfast. c.r.a.p. I hadn"t expected the fridge to be empty.

I did have money. As for clothes…

"What was my part-time job for again?"

The closet only had school uniforms. And I mean only summer ones. There was no fashion sense to be found there.

Plus, they were the old style. Yes, the old style. Um…

"The old style?"

They were normal uniforms: a shirt and pants. Summer uniform was one category, but why had I thought they were the "old style"?

…Oh.

Right, I thought as I suddenly remembered an image of the night sky.

No, not just a single image. It was an afterimage of the countless stars in the sky. It was a flashback. I was remembering something.

"Outer s.p.a.ce."

Or rather, a planet.

It had been a while since humanity discovered a livable star system that was actually within reach.

That led to a boom in s.p.a.ce development and, by the time kids my age were in our thirties, we will have resumed the exploration of the unexplored parts of the deep sea, the high mountains, and the tropics as a way of simulating that field. Our cla.s.ses had a lot more occupational training for that reason.

j.a.pan"s economy was in a bit of a slump, so they wanted to develop our physical skills and not just our soft skills while the country could still manage it.

Since j.a.pan didn"t really partic.i.p.ate in the Age of Discovery, we didn"t have much of a frontier spirit.

So the First Frontier was what we called humanity leaving its birthplace in Africa and spreading across the world.

To be nice to the rest of the world, we let the Second Frontier be the shaping of the modern world that began with the Age of Discovery.

The Third Frontier was the s.p.a.ce race in the 60s and the Fourth Frontier was what we called heading into outer s.p.a.ce and returning to the unexplored regions on earth. Again, this is just the terminology we made up ourselves.

But we made up the terms first, so we got to choose.

j.a.pan had rushed out into the lead and, if we managed to produce results before running out of steam, we would be the winners.

This new age had begun when I just started middle school, so I was part of the first generation to be directly influenced by it.

We called this the "new cultivation industry" and the mainland"s economic activities were mostly spread out to developing nations where they could take advantage of the lax laws to produce real results. j.a.pan did a lot in the undersea industries and also s.p.a.ce stuff, but that received some complaints from the other countries:

"Stop digging up our ocean floors."

That was the current state of the world…or what I"d been taught about it during "New Cult" cla.s.s in the first term.

My school had elective cla.s.ses for training and practical work in the new cultivation industry and cla.s.ses for more in depth knowledge on related legal and economic matters. You could buy a new style of uniform for that. Or rather, I really needed to get on that.

The new style had a sealed inner layer called an inner suit with a lightweight and functional uniform on top of that, so it was pretty futuristic.

Why did I know so much about it when I only had the old style? I had a good reason for that.

It was a special interest of mine. I really wanted to shake the hand of whoever designed the girl"s uniform. That"s how much I loved them. I didn"t really care if I wore one or not. It was the girls that mattered. Please make sure all the girls wear them.

Okay, I may have gotten a little sidetracked.

"Well, who cares."

I need to buy some clothes. Also some food. So if I got dressed and grabbed my wallet, I would find happiness outside. Get ready, world of consumerism. I"ll be with you soon.

I could buy a new style uniform, but I didn"t really care. The boys ones were a little too sporty for my tastes. Wearing one only made an indoorsy type like me look like a background character. And I was in the 2nd year, so I hadn"t really gotten into the electives yet.

So I would buy normal clothes.

"Okay."

Once I was dressed, I headed out. My room was on the 2nd floor. The hallway was as large as a terrace and I found someone standing next to me. They were in front of the neighboring door.

"A girl. And with big b.o.o.bs…"

"Eh?"

"No, um, excuse me. An inappropriate comment slipped out, but only because I try to be true to myself."

It was a girl I didn"t recognize.

She was tall and had big b.o.o.bs.

She fit my tastes perfectly.

I casually took over a hundred mental snapshots of her entire body.

"Um, sorry. Who might you be?"

After my inappropriate comment, I knew I had to apologize. Meanwhile in my mind…

…h.e.l.l yesssssssssssss!

If you kept the inappropriate comment inside, you didn"t have to apologize. Those were the rules. Also, you always had to be polite to someone with big b.o.o.bs. That too was important. I really needed to bow my head. She was my target of worship, after all. So it was super important.

She seemed a little confused by my behavior, but she returned my bow with her long, black hair swaying.

"Sumeragi Izumi-kun?"

She called for a "Sumeragi Izumi". At first, I wasn"t sure who she meant.

…Wait, that"s me!

Had I ever had someone so good looking call my name? What was going on? Anyway, I needed to respond. Having a good-looking girl with big b.o.o.bs call your name was a rare experience, so I couldn"t afford to screw it up.

"Eh!? Oh, yesh!"

Ahh, way to screw it up, me. Why are you stumbling over your words? You need to make a real conversation out of this! But why does she know my name? What could that mean? Oh, I bet I know.

"Do you want to marry me!?"

"Eh?"

She was clearly confused, so I slapped my own cheek.

…Don"t rush this!

I wasn"t sure what I was rushing, but I was definitely moving too fast. Those b.o.o.bs were to blame. No, the b.o.o.bs were blameless. Which was it? Oh, right. I was to blame. Yes. That"s what it was. I could accept that.

"Oh, um, sorry. I was just, uhh."

Oh, c"mon. me. You"re so nervous you"ve started wiggling around. Even I can tell that"s creepy. And it looks like she"s older than me. In fact…

…That"s it!

I figured it out.

This was why she fit my tastes so perfectly.

She was wearing the new style of uniform.

I knew I had to marry her eventually.

But saying so would have been way too inappropriate. But if I just said "bye!" and left, all I would have done was act weird on a summer morning. First impressions were important.

So I attempted communication.

"Are you an uppercla.s.sman?"

My question made her smile a little and she pointed at the door in front of her.

"I"m moving in here today, so we"ll be neighbors. Um, Sumeragi-kun? You do live next door, right? …I heard from…the landlord? I guess?"

…For real? Way to go, landlord. You"re like a G.o.d to me.

I placed a hand on my forehead as I silently thanked the landlord.

Having a busty and good looking girl living next door gave you at least a 5 rank advantage in life. No other system made sense.

And girls had a similar system. I mean, they"re clearly living a better life if a tall, hot rich guy moves in next door to them. Let"s try not to think about what it means to have me as a neighbor in that system. Okay? Anyway…

"Thank you very much."

"Eh? For what?"

"Oh, well, how should I put this?"

I realized I didn"t know anything about this uppercla.s.sman. But I was fine with pretty much everything since she met a few specific qualifications. In other words…

"First impressions are important."

"Eh? Well, yes, they are…"

Huh? Why is she backing away a little? Am I doing something weird? I am! I was wiggling around while I spoke. Whelp, there went my first impression. When filling out the job application for my part-time job, I had listed my biggest weakness as "gives a bad first impression", but that was even more accurate than I thought. But there wasn"t anyone busty at my job, so that weakness never manifested itself there. That was good. Kind of. Things were bad now, though. However…

"Then…"

She spoke to me.

"I hope that first impression of me stays true."

"Oh, you don"t have to worry about that.

Big b.o.o.bs didn"t go away. They were a universal truth. And they were even better in those new style uniforms. I wanted to worship them. So she had nothing at all to worry about!

"This was like a penetrative strike reaching from the first impression to the last! I"m willing to die for you right here and now! That"s how powerful an impression you left on me!"

"Um, let"s not exaggerate…"

Busty and modest? Fantastic. I just about said that out loud. The urge to call her "that busty and modest uppercla.s.sman" was nearly unbearable. I needed to go shout it into the Tama River later on.

And she asked a somewhat hesitant question while pointing at the apartment building.

"Is there anything I need to know about living here?"

"Eh!? Oh, yesh!"

I needed to give her some advice! Yes, um, what were the problems here? Oh, I know. There was one thing she definitely needed to know!

"You might hear some weird voices from the room next door, but please a.s.sume it"s just the wind and ignore them!"

"Eh?"

I slapped my own cheek.

"Never mind! This is a peaceful place! It"s so peaceful the occasional tanuki sighting is all the excitement we get!"

"Oh, that"s good to hear."

She said bye and opened the door to her room. I only now realized how big a bag she was carrying. I wished I had noticed earlier so I could"ve offered to carry it. But it was too late now. I wanted to get outside as soon as possible, so I descended the stairs while listening to her door shutting behind me.

"I nailed that greeting."

Way to go, me.

She entered her room, closed the door, and sighed.

The room was ready for her to live in. It had two bedrooms, so it was fairly big for an apartment.

…It was advertised as a luxury apartment, wasn"t it?

Still holding her bag, she walked into the back room without turning on the lights. That was the bedroom/study room. The storm shutter was not closed. The curtain was closed, but plenty of morning sunlight made it through the gap.

It was a summer morning, so the thin carpet felt cold in an almost damp way. And…

I didn"t expect to be back so soon."

There was a bed by the wall. She set down her bag and sat on the bed.

"Nh."

She leaned back against the wall.

The boy she had just met lived in the room beyond that wall.

…What"s going to happen?

She decided to head to school after a short break. And with that in mind, she spoke.

"Am I really good enough?"

"Yes! This is so good!"

I never knew school was so much fun during summer break!

It was like a giant academy city. The school was big enough to have shops and stuff, but they were nearly deserted during summer break since cla.s.ses were not in session.

I heard the distant voices of the practicing athletes and I raised a hand in greeting when I saw a cla.s.smate or former cla.s.smate here for club activities. Overall, it felt like I was somewhere other than school.

I decided to use the dining hall for breakfast.

Then I would go buy some clothes.

But before that, I felt like looking around school for a while.

I got sick of it after 5 minutes.

I mean, it"s not going to hold your interest for long.

Schools are made so everything"s designed pretty much the same wherever you go. With so many people on the giant campus, there were school buildings built here and there, but they were more or less identical.

I was in the eastern block of school buildings. Specifically I was in the section of that known as the far east. That was closest to Tachikawa Station, which acted as our connection to civilization outside the school.

I decided now was a good time to get breakfast, but as usual, I got a little lost. Wandering around randomly may have been a mistake. I even had a black cat cut cross my path. And when I did reach the underground dining hall…

" "We are closed today to secure the necessary ingredients." What"s that supposed to mean?"

Well, I guess I did know what it meant. They"d written it pretty clearly. Still, why "secure"? Were they a hunter?

While trying to figure out where else to go, I decided to at least grab a high calorie drink from the courtyard vending machine, but just as I pulled out some change…

"Ah! Sumeragi-chaaaan!"

Someone called my name. A hallway window on the first floor of Building A was open and a gaudy blonde girl was waving to me from there. A tall boy stood next to her and he raised a hand in greeting too.

"Hey! Sumeragi! We need another player! Saku brought a new one!"

"That"s right, Sumeragi-chan! It"s no fun playing against Tooru cause he sucks so much, so come on over!"

What was it now?

When I looked over, I saw the girl called Saku holding up a plastic bag.

Food. From outside the school. And we could eat it at school. What could be better?

It"s really feeling like summer break now, I thought as I walked toward the pair. Based on the view through the window, they were both wearing new style uniforms.

The number of uppercla.s.smen was growing.